He got butchered for the mix-up.

Ed Balls has recounted a confusing phone call he received from Gordon Brown in which he confused a senior Labour colleague’s resignation with a joint of beef.

The ex-MP said he had been at Heathrow Airport back in 1998 when Brown had rung in a panic to alert him Peter Mandelson had resigned from the cabinet.

But in a state of confusion, Balls was more worried about an expensive joint of beef, which he and wife Yvette Cooper had intended to take to Italy as a Christmas present but managed to leave in the fridge at home.

Peter Macdiarmid via Getty Images
Yvette Cooper, former shadow home secretary, was with her husband when the mix-up occured

Balls had been flying out to visit his parents, but was confronted with two alarming situations at once, as the incoming call from Brown coincided with his realisation the beef had been left behind.

“Yvette’s father was behind the wheel as we pulled into Heathrow when my pager bleeped with a text: ‘CALL ME URGENTLY - GORDON.’” Balls recounted in a post on Facebook.

“I called him, while tripping through the usual travel checklist in my mind: passport, wallet, presents, and realised with a sudden jolt that we had left the prime joint back in the fridge at Yvette’s parents’ Hampshire home.”